The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy: A Searching Look at the Conspiracy and Cover-Up, 1968-1978

by William W. Turner, Jonn Christian, Jonn Christian

Book Overview

Around midnight shortly after claiming victory in the California presidential primary on June 5, 1968, Senator Robert Kennedy walked into a deadly spray of gunfire. Immediately the Los Angeles Police... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394402731
• ISBN13: 9780394402734
• Release Date: January 1978
• Publisher: Random House (NY)
• Length: 397 Pages
• Weight: 1.95 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Was there a conspiracy to kill Robert Kennedy?

The Assassination of Robert Kennedy by William Turner and Jonn Christian is a fascinating report of their investigation into the RFK assassination. The story begins with the strange tale of Jerry Owen. Owen, who called himself the "Walking Bible" because he claimed he had all 31,173 verses of the Bible memorized, went to the Los Angeles Police on 5 June 1968, the day after Robert Kennedy was shot. He told a captivating if unbelievable story of how he had met Sirhan Sirhan a few days earlier. Owen told the LAPD he had picked up a hitchhiker a few days before the assassination. The hitchhiker was Sirhan. Owen claimed Sirhan asked him to meet him at the Ambassador Hotel around 11pm or 12am the night before the assassination. The purpose of this meeting: Owen had a horse to sell Sirhan. Sirhan changed his mind on the day and asked Owen to meet him at the hotel the following night (the night of the assassination). Owen said he couldn't make it that evening because he had other business to attend to. When Owen saw Sirhan on the television the next day, he got scared and went to the police. The police reviewed Owen's checkered past and decided he had made up the story as a publicity stunt. The LAPD dropped Owen like a hot potato. This is where Turner and Christian pick up the trail. While Turner and Christian find Owen's testimony about Sirhan to be improbable, they still are intrigued by Owen's knowledge about the crime, including details only available to the police. For example, Owen claimed Sirhan was going to buy a horse from him for $300; Sirhan was arrested with three $100 bills on him. Sirhan had had over $1,000 due to a recent insurance claim. He withdrew the last $300 from his account right before the assassination. The police asked his brother and mother what he was going to use the $300 for; Adel said, "to buy a horse." Sirhan was a part time stable hand and horse racing junkie. How could Owen know these details if he was making up the story? The story Turner and Christian follow is compelling. Credible witnesses who can place Owen and Sirhan together in the weeks leading up to the assassination are found and their testimony taken. This leads the authors to conclude that Owen, while lying to cover his involvment, is scared for his life. Turner and Christian delve into the forensic evidence. Sirhan was apprended with an Ivers Johnson .22 hand gun. This is a 8 shot weapon without a clip. Sirhan was apprehended while he was still firing shots. No witness saw Sirhan reload. Thus, when Turner and Christian uncover more than eight bullet holes in the pantry area of the Ambassador Hotel, they are forced to conclude there was more than one gunman--and by definition a conspiracy. In his notebooks, Sirhan makes several strange ramblings. Among these are references to "De Salvo" or "Di Salvo". The idea of Sirhan being hypnoprogrammed was raised by the authors early on. The reference to De Salvo, they reason, may have referred to Dr. William

Criminally Neglected Masterpiece, Proving Timeless!

This is the fourth book I have read on the RFK assassination. It is still the best. These authors are carefull, and earn the trust of even the most careful treaders through the 'wilderness of mirrors'. You will not believe what they discover! One ends up thinking that maybe surealism started in Los Angeles and not Europe. Its the kind of non-fiction that makes fiction authors electric with envy. An excellent companion volume is the book on trial of RFK by Professor Phillip Melanson and a guy named Klabor. These books make such great companions, because they are not at all redundant: the Melanson Klaber book shows that what happen during the trial is 80% as downright strange as what happened with the murder and its invesitgation. And nothing is stanger -- or in this case-- better documented and cautiously explicated -- that that.Shadow Play: The Untold Story of the Robert F. Kennedy Assassination

The Most Unbelievable Believable Book I Have Ever Read!

This book is--far and away-- STILL the best book on the RFK hit. It is also a masterpiece of writing in any genre and in some ways creates a new one. This is the type of book whose subject matter made "gonzo" necessary but whose writing style makes gonzo seem worse than immature: a lie. The breadth of investigation is stunning and only matched by the solid research and professional restraint in writing and analysis. This also happens to be the single wildest narrative I have ever read in my life. You will not be able to believe the characters you meet in this book, yet in the end they are enlivened not by fictive writing but by the charge of a turning point in American history, documented to by a former FBI agent and a former corresponedent for ABC TV in San Franciso. This work is still respected in the field and Turner was featured in the 2007 Times Discovery channel. At times this book reads like The Crying of Lot 49 but written by Hemmingway. Also PLEASE PLEASE LOOK UP THE ARTICLE ON THE PUBLICATION HISTORY OF THIS BOOK! THE BOOK SUFFERED AN ATTEMPTED MURDER WHEN SI NEWHOUSE BOUGHT RANDOM HOUSE IN 1978. Jim Di Eugenio is the author of the review and it is must reading! http://www.ctka.net/turner-christian.html This book is not simply a who dun it. It is full of deep structural connections that show the direction the bullet was taking us as a nation.

If you want to read a book about RFK's murder then read this one.

I bought this book a while back at a local book store and I was blown away by how well researched this book was. I highly recommend this book to anyone researching the death of RFK. Just fasten your seatbelt first.

"A" For Effort.....

Full disclosure: This reviewer is an avowed "no single shooter" believer, whether it be JFK, RFK or MLK and is predisposed to look favorably on any effort to shed a conspirational light on any of those tragic events. "The Assassination of RFK" raises all sorts of red flags about the tragic events of that June, 1968 night but fails to close the circle of doubt and deceit. The problem lies in that the authors have given us 3 books in one: It attempts to prove that Sirhan Sirhan was not the sole assassin at the scene. ARFK also tries to demonstrate that Sirhan MAY have been pre-programmed to kill Senator Kennedy in a "Manchurian Candidate" scenario. The most consuming effort herein lies with exposing the egregious effort by LAPD to destroy or withhold items of evidentiary value to a complete investigation AND the steadfast obstinence of the LA courts, justice system and "Establishment" toward reopening or expanding the case. This is a tall order for a work of only 321 pages in fairly large size type. Sadly, the authors Turner and Christian fall short; they certainly raise lots of smoke but do not prove any of the 3 cases outlined above. Another issue with the RFK assassination is that there is nowhere near the amount of "questions" that surround the JFK incident. One wonders what might have transpired had the LA authorities and "Establishment"simply allowed a full and complete investigation to run its' course. But they didn't!! Readers should take pains to read the introduction here. It outlines the eerie publishing history of ARFK. "Someone" did not want this story to see the light of day? Why? Previous reviewer Hildebrand has correctly stated that Americans are naïve concerning assassinations. We owe it to ourselves as a nation to inform ourselves about critical events. Justice may never be done even if we ARE informed, but at least Turner and Christian have tried. For that they deserve our collective gratitude.